Faculty Chairman proposes degree requirement changes

Chairman of the Faculty Arthur C. Smith proposed structural changes
in the requirements for undergraduate degrees at a faculty meeting
Wednesday.

"It is proposed that the General Institute Requirements be stated as a
requirement of 17 subjects -- not as a number of credit units," states
notes distributed at the meeting.

The number of required core subjects would remain the same.

The proposal calls for a slight change in the science distribution
requirements, recommending that students take at least one science
distribution subject outside of their departmental requirements.

Current degree requirements state that students must take at least 24
units of science distribution outside their major. However, this
requirement is often fulfilled by departmental requirements outside the
major.

According to meeting notes, "about 35 percent of the students do not take
[a science distribution subject] outside of their department beyond
required subjects and restricted electives."

"We recognize that many departments feel that their program provides
ample breadth, but the proposal allows students to choose the area of
breadth -- which can be particularly important in the process of selecting
a major," the notes continued.

The following programs contain two of the three :1, 2, 3, 8. The
proposal also calls for changes in the Humanities and Social Sciences
requirement. The new policy would require students to take eight subjects,
with no unit minimum. More humanities subjects, however, would be twelve
unit classes rather than nine.

The proposal would also guarantee that all students have at least 48
units of unrestricted electives. Now "there is no specified lower limit on
the amount of elective time available to students,"states the meeting
notes.

The meeting supplement explained that "the minimum amount of elective
time can vary from 12 to 60 units, depending on the departmental program,
and upon the extent to which students take [humanities] subjects, and in
some case restricted electives."

Departmental programs would normally include ll subjects and generally
total 132 units but could be extended to 12 and one-half subjects totalling
150 units.

Smith's proposal would also require that at least 96 units of courses
be from MIT subjects. This restriction is designed to prevent transfer
students cross-registered at other colleges from having too few MIT
subjects on their MIT transcripts.

The proposal would also change the residence requirement for an
undergraduate degree to three terms from two.

The main idea of the changes, Smith said, is to "define more clearly what
constitutes an undergraduate curriculum and what designates a bachelor's
degree at MIT."

"Keeping track of four subjects is healthier than keeping track of five,"
Smith said, adding that proposal stresses a reduction in the number of nine
unit classes in favor of 12 unit subjects.

Professor Mark Wrighton, undergraduate curriculum chairman of the
Department of Chemistry presented a proposal to eliminate General Biology
(7.01) and Chemical Thermodynamics (5.60) from the list of courses which
satisfy the general Institute science requirements.

"Neither of the two subjects meet the spirit of the requirement,"
Wrighton said. The meeting notes added, "these courses are unrealistic
beginning courses for most students." 5.60 requires both considerable
chemistry and mathematics experience and 7.01 requires substantial
chemistry.

The faculty will vote on the structural changes at its next meeting,
scheduled for May 15.

Looking ahead

Provost Francis E. Low presented a report on a long-range plan for MIT,
which resulted from the work of a ten-member planning committee Low
chaired.

Low outlined in the report MIT's long-range goals, including "research
and educational initiatives," and the attraction of "a more diverse
undergraduate student body."

Other long-range goals included attracting more women and minorities to
MIT and increasing the Institute's endowment. He said this should raise
faculty salaries, lower research costs and provide more financial aid to
students.